


hIgh Robot

by NeverEnoughHandsonmyTime



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Brahmin Meat Stuck to the ceiling, F/M, Implied Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28902867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverEnoughHandsonmyTime/pseuds/NeverEnoughHandsonmyTime
Summary: Nate wants to make Fahrenheits life a little easier and hopefully win her over in the process, but things do not go as planned.
Relationships: Nate/Fahrenheit (Kinda)
Kudos: 3





	hIgh Robot

Nate had only wanted to help.

Hancock had taken him in when he'd been at his absolute worst, lost and without a cap to his name.

And Fahrenheit? Well, Fahrenheit had been a bitch.

John had set him up with a room at the Rexford, gotten him a hot meal, paid him caps for clearing out the Triggermen that infested his local Warehouses.

And Fahrenheit? Yeah, Fahrenheit had been a bitch.

As time passed, John Hancock went from Saviour to Benefactor, to best friend. He'd told Nate about Detective Nick Valentine, who operated out of Diamond City. If there'd been anyone there who could help Nate find his missing son, then it was ol Nicky. Hancock had even helped Nate rescue Nick, from Skinny Malone and his Triggermen cronies because if Nate had learned anything about John Hancock, it was that the Ghoul Mayor of Goodneighbour had a Murder boner for those dapperly dressed stooges.

And Fahrenheit? If you guessed "Fahrenheit had been a bitch," then you would be exactly right.

Nate had tried to be nice to her. Truth be told, he had a thing for tough women. His Nora (May she rest in peace) had been as tough as they'd come, a hard-drinking, tough-talking Marine made of muscle and sex appeal, Nate had no idea what he'd done to catch her eye or how he'd convinced her to Marry him, but the sex! The sex had been fantastic. Nate had always believed "Fucking someone's brains out" had just been an expression. He'd learned differently on the first night of their Honeymoon.

And the second night...

And the third night...

So yeah, Nate saw a little bit of his Nora in Fahrenheit, and in his drunkest moments, he wanted to see a particular part of him in Fahrenheit. Still, no matter what he did, buying her drinks, turning on the charm, trying to learn more about her, he could never get her to look at him with anything other than repugnance.

That was when he'd formulated his plan.

If Nate eliminated one of Fahrenheits most significant sources of stress, maybe he could finally get through to her, maybe get her to talk to him, or at the very least call him "Nate" instead of "Little Pawn."

It was no secret that Fahrenheit's greatest source of stress was Hancock. John was a good leader and charismatic as all hell, but he was sloppy, cut corners, drank too much, did way too many chems. Seriously John consumed so many frigging chems daily that Nate was surprised he didn't have "The sight" by now.

In short, John left a lot of messes in his wake, and Fahrenheit was the one left cleaning them up. It was a job she juggled on top of trying to keep John safe. The poor woman hated cleaning up messes.

But Nate knew someone who loved cleaning up messes.

"His name is Codsworth. He was my old Mister Handy bot back in the day," Nate explained to Fahrenheit one night in The Third Rail, "He spent two hundred years trying to polish the car after the world went to shit, imagine what he could do here! He could help John in his day to day work, help keep him organized, keep his office tidy. I bet he could take a lot of the pressure off your shoulders, Fahr."

The shortening of her name earned him a glare, that was a privilege only reserved for Hancock, it seemed. She glanced at Nate with bloodshot eyes for so long that he almost started squirming in his chair.

"What you're describing to me, "Little Pawn," sounds like a God damn miracle, and I stopped believing in miracles a long time ago. If you bring this machine here, then you had better promise me results."

"Did you miss the part about Codsworth polishing my car for two hundred years? I mean, he's helped rebuild half of Sanctuary Fahrenheit! Good Neighbour will be a vacation for him, let me do this for you, and John, he's been good to me, let me return the favor, and hey, if this all works out like I know it will, maybe you can do something for me?" Nate knows he's treading a fine line here, but he's never going to get a better chance to ask, and besides, he knows the deck is rigged in his favor. His plan is foolproof.

Fahrenheit turns on her stool and puts her drink down, giving him her full attention. Under the brunt of her full gaze, Nate is reminded of the time he'd been taking a piss and came face to face with a Yao Guai. Both instances inspired dick shriveling terror.

"You want "me" to do something for "you" Let me be clear, little pawn, you need to be "Very" careful with the next words that come out of your mouth."

"Well, I was thinking," Nate has to fight against every bit of his survival instincts to keep himself from fleeing, "If this works out? I want to see you smile."

Fahrenheit cocks her head to the side, much like the Yao Guai did when it realized Nate was pissing on it like it couldn't comprehend the nerve of the tiny creature in front of it. Finally, she shakes her head and turns back to her drink. Nate thinks she's blown him off entirely until she mutters a single word over her shoulder, her voice so low that he almost misses it.

"Fine."

That's all the encouragement Nate needs.

\--

Two days later, Codsworth is in Good Neighbour.

Hancock is intrigued by the idea of having a personal assistant in his office (If not slightly disappointed, his new assistant doesn't have a pair of breasts), Codsworth is enthusiastic to begin work right away.

And Fahrenheit? Yeah, Fahrenheit can't decide if she's looking at the miracle that's been eluding her all her life or if she's looking at another mess she's going to get stuck cleaning up.

Nate has front row seats to watch his master plan unfold right before his eyes, but a message from The Brotherhood of Steel throws a wrench in those plans, Paladin Danse needs his help tracking down the whereabouts of a recon team that Vanished before the Prydwyn arrived casting its ominous shadow over the streets of Boston, and Nate isn't exactly in a position to say no.

Fahrenheit follows him to the gates of Good Neighbour. She's not happy with his departure. Before Nate leaves, he does his best to reassure her that it will all be okay.

"Your life is going to be so much easier now, Farh," he tells her, "And when I come back, I'm going to get to see that beautiful smile. It's a win-win situation, you'll see."

Little did Nate realize just how wrong he was.

\--

It's the better part of two weeks before Nate staggers back through the gates of Goodneighbour. He's tired, dirty, and somewhat depressed at the outcome of the mission, a handful of dead bodies and a tired old man who refused to leave the safety of his bunker. For Danse, it seemed to be closure he could accept. For Nate, it was just another lesson in the Wasteland's bountiful cruelty.

Fahrenheit is there waiting for him at the gate, that perks Nate up, at the very least, he can enjoy this success, and then maybe a shower, getting to see her smile will be the sweet cherry on top of the shit sundae he's been tasting for the last two weeks.

But Fahrenheit is not smiling. On the contrary, the look on her face makes him wonder if they're ever going to find his body when she's finished punishing him for whatever has gone wrong.

And what the hell could have possibly gone wrong?

"Fahren...." he begins, but the woman isn't even going to let him speak.

"Come with me...NOW!" she turns on her heel and storms into the statehouse, leaving Nate with no choice but to follow.

She's deaf to his repeated requests for an explanation as he follows her up the stairs. Stopping outside the door to Hancock's office, she takes a deep breath before shoving open the door and pulling him inside with her.

"Fix this!" she commands.

Nate looks around confused, his confusion gives way to shock, and his shock gives way to awe at just how fucked up things have gotten in his absence.

On any given day since Nate has known John Hancock, the mayor's desk has been a chaotic mess. Somehow that mess has been transformed to the entire room. By comparison, Sanctuary looked cleaner when he first emerged from the vault. Papers litter the floor, used Jet Canisters, empty beer bottles, somehow there is a piece of well done Brahmin Steak stuck to the ceiling, Hancock's treasured jacket hangs from the wall, pinned there by a knife with two dozen darts stuck into it, next to the jacket a dartboard sits undamaged.

Looking around the room in utter disbelief, Nate's eyes settle on Hancock, who is sitting on the couch, upside down, his legs hanging over the back of the sofa, his body bent into the cushions, and his head hanging off the sofa nearly touching the floor, he sees Nate and cocks his head to the side when he recognizes his friend his smile is brilliant.

"Naaaate! Welcome back, man! You're in one piece. That's great! Hey....Hey! Hey Nate...gonna let you in on a little secret, okay?"

"Please do..." Nate murmurs

"Fahr....is....PISSED! Don't let her catch you when you come in the gate, okay? An Don't tell her I told you! Shhhhh! it's our little secret!"

"John, she's standing right...."

"Shhhhhh!"

"I mean John, I already came through the gate, I'm standing right here t...."

"SHHHHHHHH!"

"Okay... okay...I'll shhh," Nate sighs. There's a steady banging noise coming from the corner, and Nate turns his attention to it.

"Good man!" Hancock grins, giving Nate a thumbs-up, he frowns realizing he's upside down and that the thumb point up looks like a thumb pointing down from Nates perspective, turning his thumb down to compensate, Hancock realizes that's he's now giving himself a downward thumb, determined to make sense of this situation he looks at his thumb and wiggles it trying to figure out what's wrong.

"Fahr...Fahr! FharFhar! There's something wrong with my thumb. I think it might be....broken."

Nate quickly discovers the source of the noise when he finds Codsworth bumping into the wall. The Mr. Handy grumbles, moves back a few feet, and then bumps into the wall again.

"Oh, Dear, Mister John! The door seems to have disappeared again! Perhaps you can aid me in discovering its whereabouts?"

"Codsworth? Buddy?" Nate approaches the Mr. Handy carefully, "What the hell is going on?"

Codsworth turns slowly to face Nate. When he comes face to face with him, he continues to turn until he's facing the wall again.

"Pardon me, mum! The room is spinning. I shall speak to you on the next rotation!" he slowly turns to face Nate, this time bringing himself to a full stop, "Ah! There we are! Welcome back, mum!"

"Codsworth? What happened here?" Nate gestures all around the room, "What happened to you?"

"Oh! Well, funny story that, You see mum I was helping Mister John clean when I noticed he kept drinking Alcoholic beverages, he was clearly inebri...Inebriate....drun....he was clearly shitfaced! So I inquired if being shitfaced enabled him to be more efficient, and he said yes! I pondered that perhaps if I too was shitfaced, perhaps I could work more efficiently too! So I made some adjustments to my programming to simulate shifacedness, then mister John suggested I try and simulate what it was like to be on Jet to increase my productivity further. I believe the results speak for themselves!"

"Codsworth, are you telling me you're drunk? and High?" 

"Of course not, mum! However, I am quite shitfaced and operating at at least three hundred percent efficiency, or at least I was until that blasted door started moving. Have you ever heard of such a thing, mum?"

"Codsworth, can you revert your programming back to its original state?" Nate asked him.

"Apologies, mum, but I quite seem to have forgotten how."

"Okay...well uh...why don't you Tidy up Hancock's desk then, let's try and get this place back in order, okay?"

"Happy to serve, mum!" Codsworth replies, moving over to the desk to begin his appointed task.

"Sir"

"Pardon, mum?"

"It's Nate Codsworth. I'm of the male persuasion."

"But of course you are, mum!"

Nate turns around and looks at Fahrenheit. She's his lifeline to sanity at this point, but Fahr is out of ideas and throws her hands up in disgust, and leaves the room.

Over on the couch, Hancock is trying to open a bottle of beer in his upsidedown state. As he opens the bottle, Nate tries to put out this particular fire before it starts.

"John, I wouldn't do that, man, it's going to spill and...."

John tilts the bottle upside down to drink and watches dumbfounded as the beer spills onto the floor.

"Fahr! the beer is acting weird again!"

Nate looks around desperately for something to clean up the spilled beer, opting for a discarded dress bunched up in the corner; he throws it on top of the slowly spreading puddle of beer and hopes it will soak up the mess in time. Dear God, if this is what Fahrenheit has to deal with, it's no wonder she hates the world.

Nate is beginning to think of Fahrenheit with a newfound sense of appreciation.

"Okay, I've got Codsworth tidying up Hancock's desk. It's a start. If I can get John out of his upside-down position? Maybe I can..."

"You're upside down!" John sounds offended as he calls out from the couch.

"No, John, I'm pretty sure you're upside down at the moment." Nate sighs, trying to grasp at his composure that is slipping through his fingers like so many grains of sand.

"Hey! Hey...Nate...commere....hey Nate...." Hancock gestures for Nate to come over. "Wanna tell ya a secret!" against his better judgment, Nate approaches Hancock, kneeling he leans down so Hancock can whisper in his ear, "You're upside down!" Hancock informs him in a loud stage whisper. Nate winces as beer fumes waft over his face. Standing back up, he turns to check on Codsworth's progress, and for the second time in an hour, his jaw drops.

Hancock's desk chair now sits on top of the desk, his computer rests on top of the chair, the wastebasket on top of the computer, and Codsworth finishes by adding a vase of very dead hubflowers on top of the trashcan.

Nate has run out of ideas and fucks to give at the current situation. He's exhausted and in desperate need of a drink now more than ever. Throwing his hands up, he heads for the door, opening it; he turns around and asks one more question.

"Guys? How did you get that piece of Brahmin meat on the ceiling? and how is it still stuck up there?"

"It was like that when we got here!" Both John and Codsworth answer in unison.

Nate slams the door behind him with a startling amount of energy.

\--

Fahrenheit is waiting for him as soon as he shuts the door. Grabbing him by his shirt, she pushes him back against the door with considerable force, "This HAS NOT made my life any easier!" she's so near her wits end that she doesn't even call him "Little pawn," it's a testament to how screwed Nate is about to be.

"Fahrenheit....Fahr....Jesus, I'm sorry, I had no idea this would happen," he reaches up and puts his hand's on top of hers, hoping against hope the gesture will calm her, "I had no idea something like this COULD happen!" he sighs shaking his head, "Look, the only thing I wanted out of this situation was to see you smile, to help you, to make you see that you weren't alone..."

A change comes over Fahrenheit's face when he says that, she looks at Nate, really looks at him, her gaze lays his soul bare searching for any hint of dishonesty in his words, when she's see's he's sincere, a small crack in her armor appears, for a moment he sees a very tough but tired young woman, sensing he's seeing a different side of her she turns her face away.

"No one has ever said that to me before...that I'm not alone," she says softly. She loosens her grip on his shirt but doesn't let go, "Don't get me wrong, John doesn't abuse me, he's a good guy the fucking problem is he's also..."

"He's also John?" Nate finishes for her, Fahrenheit snorts and nods her head.

"I'm respected, I'm feared, so no one thinks I need the help," she sighs and shakes her head, "Look, you don't want to hear my life story, just tell me, can the machine be fixed?"

"Yeah, I"ll call Sturges. He can roll back Codsworths programming a few days before "That" happened." he promises her, "And if you're willing to give it another try, I really do think Codsworth can help around here, and well...maybe there are a few things I can do to help you too okay?"

Fahrenheit snaps her gaze back to him. When she realizes he's serious, she smiles, it's like glimpsing the sun peering out from behind the clouds after a Radstorm, it takes years off her face, Nate can't help but return the smile, he reaches out to touch her cheek just as she leans in and places the briefest of kisses on the corner of his mouth, Nate could not have been more stunned if she'd kneed him the crotch.

She pulls back, and the smile flickers out, but her eyes still shine. Taking a deep breath, she tries to choose her words carefully. She's clearly not used to letting her guard down like this.

"If you're serious about this, Nate, then I will smile for you, but only for you, and only when we're alone. Just don't give me a reason to stop smiling, understand?"

"Understood," Nate breathes out a sigh of relief, still basking in the memory of her smile, "So you'll only smile when we're alone?" he asks her.

"Only when we're alone," she confirms.

"Well then, I hope we can find reasons to be alone frequently because I could get used to that smile." the sheer boldness of his statement brings that sunshine back from behind the clouds for a moment, a smile just as beautiful as before.

"Well, aren't you bold, we'll see about that alone time, for now, maybe we could go get a drink? You look like you could use one."

"Make that six or seven, and you've got yourself a deal," Nate said as she released his shirt and smoothed it over his chest, "Will they be alright?" he asked, gesturing over his shoulder to Hancock's office door.

"You know what? For tonight I don't give a shit," Fahrenheit shrugged. Taking a key from her pocket, she locked the office door and then led him down to the third rail.

Nate spent the night pondering two things. He wondered where this relationship with Fahrenheit would lead. Could they build something based on this mutual experience? The brief kiss and equally quick but dazzling smile filled Nate with hope.

The second thing he pondered long after he'd bid Fahr a good night and climbed into his bed in the Rexford. He lay awake staring into the darkness and wondered...

How the hell HAD that piece of Brahmin meat gotten stuck to the ceiling?


End file.
